Political cartoonist and JLP support ‘Clovis’ smears gays, PNP…

The People’s National Party (PNP) has claimed victory over the incumbent Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in today’s parliamentary elections in Jamaica. The post-result political analyses are best left for others. For me, I find it encouraging that homophobic campaigning against the PNP in reaction to its stated position on equal rights for gays to serve in parliament, and a review to repeal the buggery law, clearly made no impact on the majority of voters today.

If it’s not political suicide in Jamaica, I can’t imagine it being so anywhere else in the Caribbean.

CODE RED for Gender Justice and Women Speak take exception to a suggestion from a colleague that the term “violence against women” is discriminatory against men, and should be replaced by the term “relationship violence”. 

My thoughts, with all due respect to all parties involved:

Wasn’t this solved when we found the term ‘gender-based violence’? I agree that axing ‘violence against women’ in preference for ‘relationship violence’ will not work because there are a number of fronts on which women (and men) face violence. 

But, I do not think that adopting the term “gender-based violence” or similar over “violence against women” would help to ‘socialize [us] to devalue a focus on women, [which] not only [allows] violence against women to continue but [creates] a more permissive environment for it to occur’, as WomenSpeak argues.

Re: CODE RED’s view that “erasing the language feminists have invented to describe the harms women disproportionately face is an attempt at silencing women”, I rather think that gender-inclusive lenses through which we view vulnerability are a good thing. I long to see women and men share a platform on issues like these, rather than to frame them almost-exclusively as women’s issues in what very-often comes to look like misandrist discourse.

I’m open to counter-views.

Edit: Oh, sweet Jesus. Would you have a look at the notes in which this post is being seared by feminists? Some of whom are very angry and dare I say, abusive? I love the ‘discussion’ and the opportunity to get further insight on how they think. Check it out.

I challenge you to watch this music video by Trinidadian soca star Shurwayne Winchester and to tell me that he and his creative team aren’t idiots.

Let’s be frank about it.

In the intro to this controversial flick, which I’ve only just seen, a locked container filled with women comes to Trinidad from Cuba, a thug pays off a dealer for the cargo, and the gang of newly-purchased humans go on to pole dance in bars for Winchester’s pleasure. It’s so stupid that you’d laugh, if only the depiction of human trafficking and dehumanised women wasn’t so stark.

Who does that? It also doesn’t help that Trinidad & Tobago was criticised in the latest UN Report on Trafficking in Persons for not fully complying with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

Winchester later issued a half-assed statement on the matter saying that he had no direct control of the scripting of the introductory scene, and has since cut it from the official video.

Adding insult to injury, the national flag of Trinidad & Tobago - Winchester’s own country - is upside down for the entire video.

Shame, Shurwayne.

If you don’t care for the prose and opinion that is most of this video, just read about her on Wikipedia.

Two weeks ago, Keisha Brathwaite - a mother of two children with another on the way - broke into an unoccupied Government housing unit in Barbarees Hill, St. Michael, claiming that she was desperate for a place to live after her abusive boyfriend beat her and evicted her from his home.

The woman immediately changed the locks on the illegally occupied unit, and reportedly informed the Royal Barbados Police Force and the National Housing Corporation about what she’d done. For weeks, Brathwaite remained in the unit and ignored eviction notices from authorities, until those same authorities granted her a house of her own in another location.

There was intense public outcry, largely from middle class Barbadians, against Government’s rewarding of Brathwaite’s illegal actions: Says one,

I could never dream of getting a house from NHC, neither do I qualify for a mortgage. You have two kids and you are a single mum…go and take up a house and change the locks then. 

Says another,

Where did she get the money from to change the locks? I wont comment on her personal situation because none of us really know but whether it be in Barbados or any where else in the world, this whole attitude of “this is my right” has gone too far. Nobody wants these kids out on the street, but it is very frustrating for people who are hardworking and yet still struggling to see people like her get handouts without lifting a finger.

And, yet another,

I am so sick and tired of the “I am entitled” attitude of some of us Bajans out there and this is a classic example of the government aiding and abetting these people in utter shit! Maybe we should have skipped school and then I would have a house, car and three children all on the tax payers money!

Others were however sympathetic to Brathwaite’s plight:

Yes she is wrong but we are not living in a world of absolutes. She never said she was entitled to a house. She has apologized repeatedly for what she did and actually informed on herself - to the police, the NHC and then the media. Goodness knows if the NHC would have acted if she had not gone to the media and confessed and it caused a furore. 

Jobs are hard to find as we all know. You may have the education that will give you a job. Keisha clearly doesn’t. 

That said, one of the universally established human rights is shelter.

I’m not sure how to feel about this myself. If there is anything that the recent #Occupy movements around the world have demonstrated it is that a lot of people feel disenfranchised and are angry  - with good reason - about the broadening equality gap. Keisha Brathwaite is either a desperate woman who did the wrong thing in order to get basic shelter, or she’s an indigent freeloader on the state who does not deserve to benefit from others’ taxes. Which one is she?

The thorny, yet delicate issue of showing tolerance to politicians with homosexual or gay tendencies has become more topical in recent years, with claims of irregular conduct among members on both sides of the Jamaican political fence.

The fact that this question is even being asked says a lot. I can’t even be moved to comment any further, but you can read more at the Jamaica Observer.